Last December I did a comprehensive interview with Pete Kember on Soul Kiss. This album deserves the acclaim many heap on it, but after over 20 years it's time to take a closer look. It occurred to me that no one has really dissected this masterpiece, so I thought I'd have a go. Pete's recollection of pretty much everything from that time is incredible and he babbled away for hours about the music, the songs, the instruments used, the people involved, what influenced it... I think I got a goodie, but see what you think.

I finally got the rubber stamp to go ahead and publish it, so here it is. Big thanks to Mr & Mrs K for their time and hospitality!

Great stuff,
I liked the use of the word 'whooshy' to describe the sounds.
Also enjoyed the point about malapropism in naming Neon Sigh because for many years i referred to this LP as Soul Kiss Glide DIVIDE.

Great stuff, Mark. That's such an underrated record. It's my favourite album by either of them post SP3 I think, although LGM and Pure Phase both run it close.

Amazed it's never had a reissue.

Love the bit about the keyboard on "Lord I Don't Even.." being a sample of a wind tube. That's genius.

Really, really interesting interview.

Glad you find "Phase Me Out (Gently)" a bit sinister, too. I listened to it stoned one of the first times I listened to that record on CD with the long version and I kinda nodded out and woke up half way through that tune and it absolutely fucking terrified me. I still can't listen to it without feeling uneasy.

Last edited by natty on Sat Apr 05, 2014 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The article left me with a few questions.
In similar retrospective pieces writers often describe the reception the record received at the time. I can't remember the reviews. What were they like?
I'm pretty sure it appeared in the upper reaches of the music paper indie charts. I am sure i remember hearing the single on the radio.

The other thing is that this came out before the Spiritualized LP. At the time i never imagined that such a critical and commercial gulf would open up between the two camps/careers. I certainly remember thinking that How You Satisfy Me was a great deal more satisfying than Any Way That You Want Me the first time i heard it. It was like Sonic had raised the game.

The article also comes tantalisingly close to providing more information about the making of the Revolution video. I'd love to know more about that.

Actually I can't remember the reviews either. What I do recall is talking to Nigel House who owns Rough Trade (maybe still does?) when it came out. He rolled his eyes at the packaging and muttered 'I suppose Silvertone think they can do something with this crap' which I thought was odd at the time, particularly as it was likely to sell pretty quickly. Sorry - I was more interested in the music rather than what the press thought of it!

That Spanish label reissued it on vinyl last year. Not quite a full reissue but another pressing.

I never asked about the making of the Sp3 videos, I just remarked that HYSM had a trippy video and PK was very much in favour of it. You can see what he thought of the Hypnotized video though!

I like what he said about people's reactions to Phase Me Out Gently - from being 'in the womb' to being 'in hell'!

The wind pipe thing just blows me away. On the tape there's a stunned reaction from me as I had absolutely no idea that had happened. But listening to it - and having had a wind pipe in the 70s - it does indeed sound like that. Brilliant idea to use that sound though. The stuff about the 'ass's jawbone' was probably the weirdest thing I heard that day though.

I suspect that the question "What about the idea that Soul Kiss is the last gasp of Sonic Boom’s Spacemen 3 vision?" may have been influenced by something I said to Runcible via PM when this was being put together. I have to say that I wouldn't hav put it quite like that! I see a much closer link to Spacemen 3 in Pete's solo stuff up to and including the True Love... EP (and in Jason's solo stuff up to and including Pure Phase) than in anythng that came after. This isn't to say that I don't enjoy the later stuff (seems odd to type that sentence about material that is now ~15 years old!), just that the sensibility feels a bit different. Considering the way that Recurring was recoded, I can't see in what way that is any more of a Spacemen 3 album than Soul Kiss, Laser Guided Melodies or Pure Phase. But "Last gasp" suggests that the Spacemen 3 inspiration was dying out - not my intention, and probably not Runcible's either, but I did think it read a bit odd.

Most amazing revelation for me - if I have read this bit right - is that Pete has the master tapes for The Perfect Presciption, which I thought were lost. If they can be remastered to sound as good as the tracks off Forged Prescriptions, then I think I will be able to die happy.

The other good thing about this interview was the discussion of remastering.
The: "If i knew then what i know now" angle to the remastering thing. Is something good because of the limitations... how much better can it be etc etc
Yeah, go for it! I'll listen.

In 1991 i was listening to records on a stereo from Woolworths and the same discs will never sound as good as they did on those nights.

plastic37 wrote:The article left me with a few questions.
In similar retrospective pieces writers often describe the reception the record received at the time. I can't remember the reviews. What were they like?
I'm pretty sure it appeared in the upper reaches of the music paper indie charts. I am sure i remember hearing the single on the radio.

The other thing is that this came out before the Spiritualized LP. At the time i never imagined that such a critical and commercial gulf would open up between the two camps/careers. I certainly remember thinking that How You Satisfy Me was a great deal more satisfying than Any Way That You Want Me the first time i heard it. It was like Sonic had raised the game.

The article also comes tantalisingly close to providing more information about the making of the Revolution video. I'd love to know more about that.

It didn't come out before the Spiritualized LP. "Lazer..." came out in January '92 and "Soul Kiss" came out the following September.

I remember reviews being generally positive, mostly kinda 4/5 stuff, I also recall maybe one or two that weren't as kind but still weren't bad reviews. Sonic got quite a bit of press time around it's release. I remember one interview comparing it to LGM along the lines of "while Jason's been tuning his instruments in the Cathedral, Sonic's been meditating in the garage next door", which I thought was pretty funny.

Ian wrote:
Most amazing revelation for me - if I have read this bit right - is that Pete has the master tapes for The Perfect Presciption, which I thought were lost. If they can be remastered to sound as good as the tracks off Forged Prescriptions, then I think I will be able to die happy.

YES! I also thought they were lost and gone forever. If ever a record would benefit from a remaster it's that one. Best version I have is the Glass vinyl but for obvious reasons I don't like playing it that often.

Ian wrote:
Most amazing revelation for me - if I have read this bit right - is that Pete has the master tapes for The Perfect Presciption, which I thought were lost. If they can be remastered to sound as good as the tracks off Forged Prescriptions, then I think I will be able to die happy.

YES! I also thought they were lost and gone forever. If ever a record would benefit from a remaster it's that one. Best version I have is the Glass vinyl but for obvious reasons I don't like playing it that often.

You'll see that I highlighted Sound of Confusion as the one I though needed most attention as I don't think it came out as they wanted, partly because the technicians involved just didn't get it. Pete's tale of their reaction to this bunch of stoners turning up is hilarious.

But if you take the shiny feel of Forged Prescriptions and were able to place that on Perfect Prescription you'd have a winner. It surprised me too that he has those tapes. That means he will have the settings, as documented elsewhere in this interview. Whether that same equipment is still there isn't known. I thought that part was fascinating.

I'm glad people have enjoyed this. You can imagine how much fun I had both getting the info - the guy is so engaging in his passion for the music - and then writing it. He knows how much I love that music and how important it was for me, which I hope is why he was so open about it. Plus he knows I wouldn't do some hatchet job.

Also that album is that good it really needed a hefty piece like this one as far as I'm concerned. I can't recall such an in-depth article ever being written on any of his music before, so almost everything we talked about is in there word for word, including my startled reaction to stuff like the ass's jaw bone and wind pipe!

I agree that Sound of Confusion needs "work" to get anywhere close to sounding as good as the other 3 studio albums, but I can't imagine the polish of remastering would do much to improve it. To get that album sounding anywhere close to the quality of the other three, I'd expect a producer to go back to the multi-track tapes, session notes etc and create a new mix.

Fortunately I think the demos on Taking Drugs... are mostly good enough, and that collection as a whole is far better than SoC. Hence since it's unlikely we'll ever see a decent sounding version of the latter, I'm happy to regard the collections of demos as the closest I'll ever get to what the Spacemen were attempting to do on Sound of Confusion.

No one ever says "Robert Mueller - that guy just shoots from the hip!"
No one ever says "Robert Mueller - what an erratic fellow!"
That is a contained man! He's the human equivalent of those Japanese watermelons. Jon Lovett

plastic37 wrote:
It didn't come out before the Spiritualized LP. "Lazer..." came out in January '92 and "Soul Kiss" came out the following September.

I remember reviews being generally positive, mostly kinda 4/5 stuff, I also recall maybe one or two that weren't as kind but still weren't bad reviews. Sonic got quite a bit of press time around it's release. I remember one interview comparing it to LGM along the lines of "while Jason's been tuning his instruments in the Cathedral, Sonic's been meditating in the garage next door", which I thought was pretty funny.

That quote was in an NME interview with Sonic at the time. The same piece mentioned that more thought had gone into the song titles than most bands put into a career, which I thought was cool. Yeah the press was generally positive about the album.

LGM came out in March '92 though and I think Soul Kiss was no later than May of that year.

Great interview Mark, really informative and interesting, learned loads of stuff I never knew, so thanks.

If I read correctly, Sonic stated that he had the material to do a Forged Prescriptions type disc for Soul Kiss, I wish he would.

sunray wrote:If I read correctly, Sonic stated that he had the material to do a Forged Prescriptions type disc for Soul Kiss, I wish he would.

Finally, Phase Me Out Gently has always being womb music for me

That's correct. He could do that with the out-takes from Soul Kiss. I'd love to hear them.

Seems Phase Me Out Gently splits its audience nicely!

One of the things I found most fascinating was how he worked with classical musicians. Taping them tuning up, making noises on the strings without them knowing they were being recorded - and then using those sounds. Throw in how their sense of timing works, how that first take contains essential reference points, how once they had learned the music it became less fresh in sound... etc. That made such an impact on me I discussed a lot of it with members of my family who are classical-orientated and all them were really fascinated at how Pete viewed that part and how he made it work. At one point my mum was asking me stuff about this which I was forwarding to Pete, who would then respond with info back to my mum, and then she would respond back. Felt pretty bizarre that my mum, in her late 80s, was exchanging communications - via me - with Sonic Boom!

That is a fantastic read, many, many little nuggets in there, well done and thanks for taking the time to see it through, obviously a labour of love, you`ve got me digging it out and playing it needless to say, it still sounds superb

Like all excellent interviews, it made me want to listen to the album immediately I had finished reading it. Apparently Space age are at long last re-releasing the first three Spectrum albums on cd. Sonic Boom's Spectrum cd due out 21st April, followed by Soul Kiss and Highs Lows & Heavenly Blows.

Love this album. For a very long period, this was my favorite release from all of the Spacemen's catalog. I've always felt that the album perfectly executed an intangible concept.

How You Satisfy Me opens with what sounds like a launch to the outer atmosphere, while hedonistic-ally extending the middle bridge of Evie Sand's 'Can't Let Go' to utter extacy. The record segues it's way the highs of 'Lord I don't even know my name'. After 'Neon Sigh', the record breaks the outer stratosphere and takes orbit with 'I Love You to the Moon and Back'.

The record then drifts through 'My Love..' and goes into 'Waves wash over Me'.

'Sweet Running Water' glides through some classic Spacemen sounds, and goes into 'Touch the Stars' which seems to insinuate the sharing of the ultimate high. 'Glide Divine' utilizes some awesome effects as stated in the interview, and of course that awesome 'Dunk Suite'. I wasn't aware that the finale 'Phase Me Out' split the audience so much, but I take it as projecting an atmosphere of ritual, and almost seems to repeat an 'OM' like chant throughout.

It feels like a concept, but not one that I can credit any kind of name to. Perhaps it's hedonism. Soul Kiss, Glide Divine. The Ultimate High? The most high? Still trying to put it all together.

If I'm to compare against the concept of a Spiritualized record ( Pure Phaze - - another record that is segued with the 'pure phase' bridge throughout, akin to the 'whoosh' of SKGD) Jason is the guy who would find pleasure in going out to the desert to find yourself, while Sonic is the guy that wants to share with you the art of getting fucked up for the sake of getting fucked up.

As i have already mentioned i got used to calling this lp Soul Kiss Glide Divide.
So for me the concept was four phases of a relationship represented by those four words. I never really searched for further evidence of this idea - i didn't identify where the soul phase ended or the kiss songs began.Its just the title alone - that's what it meant to me. Maybe i associated it with a relationship because of lines like: "I love you, to the moon and back, that's a fact" - which is probably my second favourite moment on the lp behind a certain section of Neon Sigh.

Really great piece. I was at the show you use a photo from when he's playing the airline. Primavera it was. Where did you get the photo? I think it might even be one of mine! I lost all my photos from that trip, but I did put plenty online around.

I grabbed that piccie from the web. Curiously I couldn't find one of him playing the Teardrop apart from the sleeve of Angel. Should have taken a pic at the time.

The Airline I saw on the day of the interview was the bass version. I should have asked about that as I've never seen Pete play a bass so maybe that was more of a collector's piece. I wonder how the Spacemen history would look now if he had chosen a Flying V instead of the Teardrop as his favoured guitar!

ABOCA wrote:Like all excellent interviews, it made me want to listen to the album immediately I had finished reading it. Apparently Space age are at long last re-releasing the first three Spectrum albums on cd. Sonic Boom's Spectrum cd due out 21st April, followed by Soul Kiss and Highs Lows & Heavenly Blows.

where did you hear this info? this is good news.

runcible wrote:I grabbed that piccie from the web. Curiously I couldn't find one of him playing the Teardrop apart from the sleeve of Angel. Should have taken a pic at the time.

The Airline I saw on the day of the interview was the bass version. I should have asked about that as I've never seen Pete play a bass so maybe that was more of a collector's piece. I wonder how the Spacemen history would look now if he had chosen a Flying V instead of the Teardrop as his favoured guitar!

wow I can't envisage pics of Kember being as iconic with a Flying V!.. I have the same opinion on them as you, not a guitar design I find appealling. even Hendrix didn't look cool playing one.
I am not sure about the point of the Teardrop being underappreciated though.. off the top of my head Joy Division, the Bunnymen, and if you go further back, Brian Jones all used one?
same with the Jaguar too. I thought that was the indierock guitar of choice through the late 80's early 90's, at least if you couldn't get a Jazzmaster?

ABOCA wrote:Like all excellent interviews, it made me want to listen to the album immediately I had finished reading it. Apparently Space age are at long last re-releasing the first three Spectrum albums on cd. Sonic Boom's Spectrum cd due out 21st April, followed by Soul Kiss and Highs Lows & Heavenly Blows.

where did you hear this info? this is good news.

The only place i saw it mentioned was Piccadilly's website. Tracklist there for 'Spectrum' would suggest no bonus tracks, which seems a bit of a waste.

spunder wrote:
Neon Sigh is one of my fave pieces of music. seems to perfectly evoke being under the surface of a shallow, turquoise, tropical sea with the sun rays dappling through...

I'm loving all the emoting about Soul Kiss this article has kicked off.
More of this sort of thing please.
Be it a single word "Whooshy" or the above.
I wonder what Erik Morse has to say on the matter?

For me Neon Sigh was a long wave in space. Inner, outer, molecular, modular.
To the Moon and Back was too much of a fact.

And How You Satisfy Me was in a car at five minutes past five on the Friday of a Bank Holiday weekend.

plastic37 wrote:
I'm loving all the emoting about Soul Kiss this article has kicked off.
More of this sort of thing please.
Be it a single word "Whooshy" or the above.
I wonder what Erik Morse has to say on the matter?

Dunno, but whatever it is I bet he either prefaces or proceeds it by mentioning that someone rolled a joint and then smoked it.

No one ever says "Robert Mueller - that guy just shoots from the hip!"
No one ever says "Robert Mueller - what an erratic fellow!"
That is a contained man! He's the human equivalent of those Japanese watermelons. Jon Lovett

Wasn't sure what thread to put this in.. but whatever happened to the reissue of Soul Kiss? anybody got any news?
The first Sonic Boom album was reissued a little while back, and I thought they were going to work through the catalogue.

But on vinyl? I believe the Sonic Boom album reissue was done through some flaky license deal in Spain on Vinillisssimo. And those guys did a Soul Kiss reissue in the same way. I don't know of any other vinyl reissues that have taken place of either the solo Sonic Boom album, or Soul Kiss. So those Spanish pressings were hardly proper reissues.

Of course the one everyone is after is Highs, Lows. An album that was deleted within a week of release... One of Silvertone's lower moments, as was the lack of publicity and support for the tour that accompanied its release. Really frustrating as the London show on that tour was absolutely incredible...

oh right.. well I wasn't even aware that Soul Kiss had been reissued on CD.. that's what I was after really. it still seems impossible to get hold of.
if you look earlier in the thread it looks like the Spectrum album was reissued on CD in April 2014.. I then thought they would work their way through the catalogue one by one (including Highs and Lows!)

And a nice bump that got me listening to this album again last night for the first time in years! Surprised and delighted to see the oil still inside the cover, although it's gone clear now - it was coloured originally wasn't it?

If ever an album demanded the full "Don't look back" treatment it was this - imagine that show!